Cast: Me- 33YO WDW nut
Mikey- 44 YO, one of my best friends for the last 15 years
Mike Jr.- Mikeys 21 YO son
Adam- Mikeys 18 YO son
Christy- Mike Jr.s 18 YO girlfriend
I forewarned Mikey that this would be an all out commando trip, so he was ready when after 4 ½ hours sleep the alarm went off. After a 45 minute workout at Muscles and Bustles, BWV fitness center, we quickly showered and headed to Disney Studios. Mikeys hip is bothering him this morning, first time thats happened he says. We get to DS just at the rope drop, and head straight for ToT to get FPs. Then we are off to R n R which we ride three times in a row walking on each time. Mikey is having to much fun, and he breaks down and admits that the reason he was leary of the WDW trip was that he was worried about his heart. He was diagnosed with an enlarged heart about a year ago, and had a pacemaker/defib put in last spring. But now that the old ticker has passed the test, he is gung ho for anything. We use our FPs for ToT and then head to the Great Movie Ride which is another walk on. I had scheduled early lunches each day, that way we could skip breakfast and pig out at lunch time. Today we were eating at the 50s Prime Time, Cousin Elaine was our server and she was wonderful. I recommended the meatloaf to Mikey, which I like a lot. He was not that fond of it though, and mentioned that fact to cousin Elaine. She was insistent that he try something else and within 3 or 4 minutes he had a plate of fried chicken that he said was wonderful. He also thought the restaurants theming was awesome especially the dessert menu on the view master. We had wanted to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Show after lunch, but we had some time to kill so we, you guessed it, stopped to have a beer.
We met Cousin Sheila at the Tune in Lounge, which is connected to the Prime Time and she is a HOOT! We had the best time hanging out with her and cousin Carolyn. After a couple, we walk over to see Dr Jones and I am amazed at how empty the theater, as well as the rest of the park is. After the stunt show I take Mikey to peek inside of the Sci-Fi Dine in Theater and he is thoroughly impressed with the theming here as well. We took a quick walk down NY street as I really missed seeing the Osborne lights last year. They were all up, covering everything, but not terribly impressive during the day. Bummer, when I originally planned this trip, bringing my kids instead of Mikey, this was something that I was really looking forward to. Mikeys hip is really starting to bother him, so we decided to head back to the Tune in and rest his hip. When we arrive we find another of the bartenders, cousin David, is not working today, so we sit with him and enjoy another beer . After a few minutes I decide to run to RnR and grab some FPs while Mikey continues to rest his hip. I decide to stop and buy a replacement Pal Mickey on the way back, and I dont make it back to the Tune in before seeing the family from the airplane that ended up with my first PM. The youngest girl has her PM clipped to her wheelchair and remembers me! She tells me all about how PM has been her tour guide. I get the feeling though that she has probably not been sharing PM with big sister like she should, so I give my newly purchased PM to big sister, and get big hugs 
from both before returning to the Tune in. Upon my return to the Tune in, I see the newlyweds Eric and Amanda(the wedding mouse ears are always a dead give away) that were extras in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We strike up a conversation with them and find out they are from St Louis. Mikey and I went to St Louis just a few weeks ago to watch our Astros lose to the Cardinals 
, so we had a great time talking baseball with the newlyweds. After another beer we decide to use our FPs for RnR and cousin David decides to join us. I think I prefer RnR after having a few, it was awesome! On the way back to the Tune in, cousin David mentions that he is hanging around for a few hours until after Fantasmic, the DS cast members are getting a preview of the Osborn Lights this evening. This conversation continues over a beer back at the Tune in and cousin Sheila mentions that she would love to go, but she has no one to go with. Mikey and I being the gentlemen that we are offer to escort her. OK maybe just a little self serving, but how cool is this? But wait, we have tickets to La Nouba tonight. What to do? I had heard the newlyweds that we met earlier saying that they wanted to see La Nouba, and who should walk back in the Tune in? Eric and Amanda. I decided it must be fate, and we offer our tickets to them and they are thrilled and accept. I tell you I am starting to feel like a philanthropist on this trip. But what fun it was to see the excitement on their faces. Cousin Sheila is just getting ready to punch out, so we invite her to join us for dinner at the Brown Derby and Fantasmic before we go to see the Osborn lights. She accepts but will run home and change clothes first. After one more beer , we leave the Tune in and head to the BD for our Fantasmic dinner package. Mikey LOVES the cobb salad that we split, I have the mustard crusted lamb and he has the filet. Both entrees are great. We have just about finished our entrees, and given up on meeting up with Sheila when she slides right into our booth. Boy, I thought she was fun and outgoing when she was at work, but get the uniform off and she is just crazy!!!!!!!!!! She is from New Orleans and is coon a$$ through and through. We ordered another cobb for her and finished our entrees. We all split the two desserts that were part of the dinner package and have another beer . At this point our server reminds us that if we dont hurry up, we are going to miss Fantasmic. We all high tail it over to the secret, I just paid way to much for dinner, Fantasmic entrance and Mikey is very impressed at how important we are LOL! We find a spot on the bleachers and Mikey and I head up to the concessions stand for beers . Upon leaving the reserved dinner section, the CM at the rope tells me that I must fly like Tinkerbell and Mikey must pretend to sprinkle pixie dust when we come back, or we arent getting back in. While waiting for beer one of the CMs that sells all of the light up toys stops nearby and Mikey and I buy up all (15 or 20) of the little neon necklaces. We decided that since Sheila has been missing Mardi Gras, we would have Mardi Gras in our Fantasmic section. So after flying and sprinkling pixie dust, not to mention spilling half of our beer in the process, we get back to our seats and instruct Sheila to distribute our Mardi Gras beads to the kids in our section. I think she had a lot of fun doing so. This was Mikey and Sheilas first Fantasmic, so it was fun to watch their faces throughout the show. This was the one time when I really missed my kiddos and wished they were with us. Dinner at the BD and Fantasmic was a tradition for our family. Sheila did say afterwards that I am kind of weird for knowing every word to the soundtrack. Of course she also though that my Mickey tattoos are kind of weird also, and proceeds to call me Mickey Boy 
the rest of the night. We still have a few minutes to kill before the opening of the Osborn lights so we pop back in to the Tune in for another beer . Alas, cousin Carolyn is locking everything up, but Sheila convinces her to unlock everything so we can have just one more beer. After thanking cousin Carolyn profusely, we walk on over to NY street just as they are having the lighting up ceremony. To see five million Christmas lights come on all at once is simply awesome! We spent about a half of an hour walking throughout the streets of America admiring Mr. Osborns lights, I think I liked them better on residential street, but oh well. Hopefully the new stunt show will be good enough to assuage my grief over the loss. On the way out of the Studios we run into cousin Mark, the best (sorry cousin Elaine) server at 50s Prime Time, and maybe the best in all of WDW. He remembers me from my August trip, and we chat for a few minutes. Sheila is nice enough to offer us a ride home, you know your having fun when you are searching the CM parking lot for a Toyota with the license plate blk mgic. Now I am sure that Sheila is a coona$$. Sheila drops us at the BW and we give her big hugs, we were so lucky to meet such a special person. It is now about 9:30 and Mikeys sons are driving in from Naples and should be here soon, He calls to check on them and they are on I-4 about 20 minutes out. We find out that Mike JRs (to be known as JR for the rest of this report to avoid confusion) girlfriend Christy is also driving in from Kissimee. We decide one room is not enough and I run inside to get a second room, while Mikey watches for Christy. Just as I get back outside, Christy shows up. We grab her luggage and have the valet park her car. After another 20 minutes of waiting, we call JR to see where he and Adam are. They are at the Hess station, which we can see from the front of BW. Or so we think. After 10 minutes of Mikey yelling how can you not see the hotel its right in front of you, we discover that they are at the Hess Station in front of DTD. Mikey decides to grab a cab and lead the boys in order to avoid any further detours. Once they arrive we get their bags stored, we take them to the ESPN Club for dinner and a beer . It had been a couple of years since I had met the boys and I had never met Christy before, so we spent some time visiting and catching up. After dinner we went straight up to the room and crashed out, after warning the kids that we would be leaving the lobby bound for Epcot at 8:00 am sharp.
I have to say my favorite thing again today was all of the great folks we met. Especially getting to see the family from our plane flight in again.
Next up Day 3 Epcot and Beers around the World .
Mikey- 44 YO, one of my best friends for the last 15 years
Mike Jr.- Mikeys 21 YO son
Adam- Mikeys 18 YO son
Christy- Mike Jr.s 18 YO girlfriend
I forewarned Mikey that this would be an all out commando trip, so he was ready when after 4 ½ hours sleep the alarm went off. After a 45 minute workout at Muscles and Bustles, BWV fitness center, we quickly showered and headed to Disney Studios. Mikeys hip is bothering him this morning, first time thats happened he says. We get to DS just at the rope drop, and head straight for ToT to get FPs. Then we are off to R n R which we ride three times in a row walking on each time. Mikey is having to much fun, and he breaks down and admits that the reason he was leary of the WDW trip was that he was worried about his heart. He was diagnosed with an enlarged heart about a year ago, and had a pacemaker/defib put in last spring. But now that the old ticker has passed the test, he is gung ho for anything. We use our FPs for ToT and then head to the Great Movie Ride which is another walk on. I had scheduled early lunches each day, that way we could skip breakfast and pig out at lunch time. Today we were eating at the 50s Prime Time, Cousin Elaine was our server and she was wonderful. I recommended the meatloaf to Mikey, which I like a lot. He was not that fond of it though, and mentioned that fact to cousin Elaine. She was insistent that he try something else and within 3 or 4 minutes he had a plate of fried chicken that he said was wonderful. He also thought the restaurants theming was awesome especially the dessert menu on the view master. We had wanted to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Show after lunch, but we had some time to kill so we, you guessed it, stopped to have a beer.
We met Cousin Sheila at the Tune in Lounge, which is connected to the Prime Time and she is a HOOT! We had the best time hanging out with her and cousin Carolyn. After a couple, we walk over to see Dr Jones and I am amazed at how empty the theater, as well as the rest of the park is. After the stunt show I take Mikey to peek inside of the Sci-Fi Dine in Theater and he is thoroughly impressed with the theming here as well. We took a quick walk down NY street as I really missed seeing the Osborne lights last year. They were all up, covering everything, but not terribly impressive during the day. Bummer, when I originally planned this trip, bringing my kids instead of Mikey, this was something that I was really looking forward to. Mikeys hip is really starting to bother him, so we decided to head back to the Tune in and rest his hip. When we arrive we find another of the bartenders, cousin David, is not working today, so we sit with him and enjoy another beer . After a few minutes I decide to run to RnR and grab some FPs while Mikey continues to rest his hip. I decide to stop and buy a replacement Pal Mickey on the way back, and I dont make it back to the Tune in before seeing the family from the airplane that ended up with my first PM. The youngest girl has her PM clipped to her wheelchair and remembers me! She tells me all about how PM has been her tour guide. I get the feeling though that she has probably not been sharing PM with big sister like she should, so I give my newly purchased PM to big sister, and get big hugs from both before returning to the Tune in. Upon my return to the Tune in, I see the newlyweds Eric and Amanda(the wedding mouse ears are always a dead give away) that were extras in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We strike up a conversation with them and find out they are from St Louis. Mikey and I went to St Louis just a few weeks ago to watch our Astros lose to the Cardinals , so we had a great time talking baseball with the newlyweds. After another beer we decide to use our FPs for RnR and cousin David decides to join us. I think I prefer RnR after having a few, it was awesome! On the way back to the Tune in, cousin David mentions that he is hanging around for a few hours until after Fantasmic, the DS cast members are getting a preview of the Osborn Lights this evening. This conversation continues over a beer back at the Tune in and cousin Sheila mentions that she would love to go, but she has no one to go with. Mikey and I being the gentlemen that we are offer to escort her. OK maybe just a little self serving, but how cool is this? But wait, we have tickets to La Nouba tonight. What to do? I had heard the newlyweds that we met earlier saying that they wanted to see La Nouba, and who should walk back in the Tune in? Eric and Amanda. I decided it must be fate, and we offer our tickets to them and they are thrilled and accept. I tell you I am starting to feel like a philanthropist on this trip. But what fun it was to see the excitement on their faces. Cousin Sheila is just getting ready to punch out, so we invite her to join us for dinner at the Brown Derby and Fantasmic before we go to see the Osborn lights. She accepts but will run home and change clothes first. After one more beer , we leave the Tune in and head to the BD for our Fantasmic dinner package. Mikey LOVES the cobb salad that we split, I have the mustard crusted lamb and he has the filet. Both entrees are great. We have just about finished our entrees, and given up on meeting up with Sheila when she slides right into our booth. Boy, I thought she was fun and outgoing when she was at work, but get the uniform off and she is just crazy!!!!!!!!!! She is from New Orleans and is coon a$$ through and through. We ordered another cobb for her and finished our entrees. We all split the two desserts that were part of the dinner package and have another beer . At this point our server reminds us that if we dont hurry up, we are going to miss Fantasmic. We all high tail it over to the secret, I just paid way to much for dinner, Fantasmic entrance and Mikey is very impressed at how important we are LOL! We find a spot on the bleachers and Mikey and I head up to the concessions stand for beers . Upon leaving the reserved dinner section, the CM at the rope tells me that I must fly like Tinkerbell and Mikey must pretend to sprinkle pixie dust when we come back, or we arent getting back in. While waiting for beer one of the CMs that sells all of the light up toys stops nearby and Mikey and I buy up all (15 or 20) of the little neon necklaces. We decided that since Sheila has been missing Mardi Gras, we would have Mardi Gras in our Fantasmic section. So after flying and sprinkling pixie dust, not to mention spilling half of our beer in the process, we get back to our seats and instruct Sheila to distribute our Mardi Gras beads to the kids in our section. I think she had a lot of fun doing so. This was Mikey and Sheilas first Fantasmic, so it was fun to watch their faces throughout the show. This was the one time when I really missed my kiddos and wished they were with us. Dinner at the BD and Fantasmic was a tradition for our family. Sheila did say afterwards that I am kind of weird for knowing every word to the soundtrack. Of course she also though that my Mickey tattoos are kind of weird also, and proceeds to call me Mickey Boy the rest of the night. We still have a few minutes to kill before the opening of the Osborn lights so we pop back in to the Tune in for another beer . Alas, cousin Carolyn is locking everything up, but Sheila convinces her to unlock everything so we can have just one more beer. After thanking cousin Carolyn profusely, we walk on over to NY street just as they are having the lighting up ceremony. To see five million Christmas lights come on all at once is simply awesome! We spent about a half of an hour walking throughout the streets of America admiring Mr. Osborns lights, I think I liked them better on residential street, but oh well. Hopefully the new stunt show will be good enough to assuage my grief over the loss. On the way out of the Studios we run into cousin Mark, the best (sorry cousin Elaine) server at 50s Prime Time, and maybe the best in all of WDW. He remembers me from my August trip, and we chat for a few minutes. Sheila is nice enough to offer us a ride home, you know your having fun when you are searching the CM parking lot for a Toyota with the license plate blk mgic. Now I am sure that Sheila is a coona$$. Sheila drops us at the BW and we give her big hugs, we were so lucky to meet such a special person. It is now about 9:30 and Mikeys sons are driving in from Naples and should be here soon, He calls to check on them and they are on I-4 about 20 minutes out. We find out that Mike JRs (to be known as JR for the rest of this report to avoid confusion) girlfriend Christy is also driving in from Kissimee. We decide one room is not enough and I run inside to get a second room, while Mikey watches for Christy. Just as I get back outside, Christy shows up. We grab her luggage and have the valet park her car. After another 20 minutes of waiting, we call JR to see where he and Adam are. They are at the Hess station, which we can see from the front of BW. Or so we think. After 10 minutes of Mikey yelling how can you not see the hotel its right in front of you, we discover that they are at the Hess Station in front of DTD. Mikey decides to grab a cab and lead the boys in order to avoid any further detours. Once they arrive we get their bags stored, we take them to the ESPN Club for dinner and a beer . It had been a couple of years since I had met the boys and I had never met Christy before, so we spent some time visiting and catching up. After dinner we went straight up to the room and crashed out, after warning the kids that we would be leaving the lobby bound for Epcot at 8:00 am sharp. I have to say my favorite thing again today was all of the great folks we met. Especially getting to see the family from our plane flight in again.
Next up Day 3 Epcot and Beers around the World .
